1950s Fads – Coonskin Caps

Davy Crockett was our hero. And to prove it, we all went out and bought coonskin caps. About 100 million dollars worth of raccoon caps sold in one year certainly qualifies as a fad of serious ecocnomic proportions.

But we didn’t stop there. We also bought capguns, wrist watches, books, moccasins, lunch boxes and all manner of merchandise. America had a major case of Davy Crockett-itis.

Fess Parker portrayed both Davy Crockett and later Daniel Boone on TV. Many historians feel that this caused a permanent blurring of the two real life men into one entity forever making each less distinct.

What’s curious about this is that Davy Crockett was only a five feature Frontierland adventure which aired as part of Disneyland.

The first three episodes were: “Davy Crockett Indian Fighter” 12/15/54 “Davy Crockett Goes to Congress” 1/26/55 “Davy Crockett At the Alamo” 2/23/55

Now as any student of history knows, Davy at the Alamo kind of boxed Disney into a corner because that’s where his tale ends. So they had to go back and make episodes about his earlier exploits. Which were: “Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race” 11/16/55 “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates” 12/14/55

Davy Crockett never got a series of his own. Like most fads that come in with a vengeance, they tend to go out with the proverbial whimper. Thus it was with Davy Crockett and the coonskin cap. See also: TV Westerns

Fads / Toys

1950s Fads / Toys

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